Ask questions to The Digital Bits team (Bill Hunt, Jeff Kleist et.al.)

[Mr. Cinema]

I voted for Psycho on Universal's page. Since that film is in black and white and a classic, I'm sure most voters WON'T choose it. I have hopes it'll still make it out this year, especially since this is the 50th anniversary. What better time than now?

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by Mr. Cinema

I voted for Psycho on Universal's page. Since that film is in black and white and a classic, I'm sure most voters WON'T choose it. I have hopes it'll still make it out this year, especially since this is the 50th anniversary. What better time than now?

if I'm not mistaken, this was in the rumor mill (from the Bits) to indeed be
released this very year!

[JonBidinger]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Maybe someone else can figure it out

I presume all of these titles are coming sooner rather than later, maybe even all this year, and this was just a way for Universal to gin up interest in Uni blu-rays with the coupon being an incentive to go out and buy some. Plus it allows the fans to feel like they have some input.

Am I close?

[Q?]

Originally Posted by JonBidinger

I presume all of these titles are coming sooner rather than later, maybe even all this year, and this was just a way for Universal to gin up interest in Uni blu-rays with the coupon being an incentive to go out and buy some. Plus it allows the fans to feel like they have some input.

Am I close?

And to top it all off, they can get access to all the info there is on you and your friends on facebook, which is why I didn't vote anyways....

[Jeff Kleist]

We have two winners

[Mr. Cinema]

Jeff,

With the news about it being easier to include Dolby TrueHD audio now on BDs, can we expect to see a comeback from them? Aside from the occasional WB release, like The Informant, TrueHD has pretty much vanished lately. It seems everyone is set on DTS-HD for the moment. Would they have to offer up some incentives to the studios to try and get back in the conversation again?

[Jeff Kleist]

We shall see whether the power of the new tools is enough to overcome the raging fanboy factor. Either way, I wouldn't expect to see any shift till fall because they're a- not quite ready yet, and it takes at least 3 months to see on the shelves any change like that for the most part

[MerrickG]

Jeff,

that is a good question and I have no doubt that it has already been answered, but why have all the studios seemingly moved exclusively to DTS-HD MA?

Im not complaining at all (lossless is lossless right) but I realized that my receiver hasnt had the pretty Dolby TrueHD light up on my receiver in a while and I think its starting to go through withdrawals.

Whats going on with the death of TrueHD. What did I miss?

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by JonBidinger

I presume all of these titles are coming sooner rather than later, maybe even all this year, and this was just a way for Universal to gin up interest in Uni blu-rays with the coupon being an incentive to go out and buy some. Plus it allows the fans to feel like they have some input.

Am I close?

I agree that all of these titles will likely be released soon regardless of this poll. I do wish they would have put scarface on that list though.

A write in option would have been nice.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

We shall see whether the power of the new tools is enough to overcome the raging fanboy factor.

Jeff, in your inestimable, is it really fanboyism more than it's some licensing issue (rates, relationships, etc.)?

[Mr. Cinema]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Jeff, in your inestimable, is it really fanboyism more than it's some licensing issue (rates, relationships, etc.)?

The current situation we see on BD is the exact opposite on DVD. DTS titles were few and far between on that format, yet they have surged and quickly overtaken TrueHD as the audio of choice now.

I find it interesting that they've switched places from 1 format to the other.

[Jeff Kleist]

The move to DTS was a combination of factors. Their encoder was somewhat faster and more streamlined interface, had a windows version, and handled seamless branching better in authoring. The end product is essentially a wash. The fanboy factor was definately in the equation, more than I think most would care to admit

[DaViD Boulet]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The move to DTS was a combination of factors. Their encoder was somewhat faster and more streamlined interface, had a windows version, and handled seamless branching better in authoring. The end product is essentially a wash. The fanboy factor was definately in the equation, more than I think most would care to admit

I prefer DTS-HD MA in that it typically means no dialog normalization processing will be utilized giving a true bit-for-bit PCM reconstruction to the DAC. Most of the TrueHD titles I have employ DN for no obvious reason (ie, a "single feature play" format like DVD or Blu-ray doesn't need to "level match" something else... unlike cable television channels where level-matching between programs serves a very practical function for the listener and audiophile concerns are less paramount).

[Mr. Cinema]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

The move to DTS was a combination of factors. Their encoder was somewhat faster and more streamlined interface, had a windows version, and handled seamless branching better in authoring. The end product is essentially a wash. The fanboy factor was definately in the equation, more than I think most would care to admit

That's one thing I'm disappointed in, is the rare use of seamless branching. Universal appears to be the only ones using it.

[Jeff Kleist]

I prefer DTS-HD MA in that it typically means no dialog normalization processing will be utilized giving a true bit-for-bit PCM reconstruction to the DAC.

As as been explained numerous times, dialnorm does nothing that moving the volume knob on your receiver doesn't do.

[Nick Graham]

Voted for Psycho, but what we should really be getting is a feature-packed Psycho quadrilogy, with Fahey commentary.

[Jeff Kleist]

Seamless branching is very technically challenging to do, that's why most people don't use it.

[DaViD Boulet]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

As as been explained numerous times, dialnorm does nothing that moving the volume knob on your receiver doesn't do.

Digital volume control (ie, recalculating amplitude in the digital domain and altering bit-word length) is not the same as the analog attenuator in most preamps and receivers. DN is applied to the digital data prior to d/a conversion.

The transparency of 24-bit digital volume adjustment could be argued given the accuracy of the algorithms used, but the two methodologies (analog versus digital volume attenuation) are not the same.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Seamless branching is very technically challenging to do, that's why most people don't use it.

Are there any examples of dvds or blurays that you can name off the top of your head in which they dont handle seamless branching very well?

I have several films that use seemless branching on dvd and bluray that have no issues with it.

[Drewza89]

Originally Posted by Nick Graham

Voted for Psycho, but what we should really be getting is a feature-packed Psycho quadrilogy, with Fahey commentary.

Man, I would love it if Uni would release all of the Psycho movies on Blu this year, but I have a strong feeling that they will only release the first one. Psycho II and III are so underrated!

Jeff, any chance we'll get the Psycho sequels along with the original this year?